Formidable online high stakes poker pro Ben “Bttech86” Tollerene showed off his skills in major live action in Panama this week, taking down the $50,000 buy-in PokerStars Championship Panama Super High Roller in a brilliant display that saw him start with the chip lead and then eliminate every member of a talented final table to claim the main prize of $538,715.
A measure of the achievement can be gauged by the opposition at that table, which took four-and-a-half hours to finalise and included top international aces like Steve O’Dwyer, Daniel Dvoress, Justin Bonomo and Timothy Adams.
Prior to that, Tollerene had ploughed his way through a total of 33 entrants (including three re-entries) in the competition.
Going into the heads up stage Tollerene looked impregnable, with a lead of 9 to 1 over his last opponent, Canada’s Daniel Dvoress. The Canadian made a valiant effort, and even managed a double up at one point, but the chip disadvantage was too big to survive, and he was eventually sent home with a well-deserved runner up prize of $372,360.
Tollerene, who reportedly has over $11 million in online high stakes poker career earnings and a growing list of major live tourney victories, told reporters that he would be playing more live tournaments in the months and years ahead. Online opponents leery of his talent and achievements are more cautious about mixing it up with him, and the live tournament circuit offers many opportunities as replacements that may be worth the travel involved.
Other final table cashes were:
Justin Bonomo $237,680
Steve O’Dwyer $182,220
Orpen Kisacikoglu $142,600
Timothy Adams $110,920